Fang and Claw
by Verthril
Summary: Catching the scent of his only brother, Victor's forced to confront Stryker's one last betrayal meeting the man who calls himself Logan. Playing for keeps to get his Jimmy back, he might get more than he bargained for after another one night. Playing for high stakes, the pay off just might be everything he wanted in spades, his family back. Post Last Stand, Origins: Wolverine.
1. Chapter 1

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made.

Through the stink and stench of unwashed bodies, a backed up urinal and stale bear he was surprised at all when he caught the scent so heavy without the man it belonged to walking through the door. Looking there, instead he found what very well could be a nights fun walking in dressed in tight fitting jeans, a biker jacket and a helmet under her arm. He wasn't alone in admiring the frail, thinking she was just Jimmy's type, a fragile looking Asian flower with just a dash of feistiness to flavour.

As usual he had more than a few stools free around him, few wanting to share company when they knew there was a wolf prowling at the edges of the light in his eyes. He gave the girl a look as she took a seat with a stool between them, ordering up a Bud and setting her helmet down on the vacant stool. Scratching a little smiley face into the wood of the bar, it joined the rest of the carved graffiti with some dating back decades with one well worn Kilroy standing out.

"What's a pretty little thing like you doin' in a place like this?" Victor asked, smiling at her sideways.

"Not to be a straight up bitch bud, but I'm just not in the mood tonight..." The Asian flower sighed, putting back her beer.

Laughing lightly as he added some touches to another carving, Victor went back to his bourbon and gave her some space. He'd been coming to this bar ever since he had caught his little brothers scent there one night, wondering if he'd make another appearance, so far all he had for it all was some time with some of the barmaids and enough fights with the locals that they were all just too piss scared to start anything else with him, a right shame he figured.

"Well, just what are ya in the mood fer?" Victor asked, sipping his whiskey and looking at her over the rim of his glass.

"To forget my friend is fucking a man she met when she was sixteen, total mutual friendzone between them till they blew that outta the water with a bottle of scotch and years of sexual tension coming to a head." She spouted off, nearly finishing her beer in one thirsty swig.

The scent of her frustration and anger was like a perfume, adding to her beauty as he admired her. Waving to the bartender, he ordered up another round for her and another glass, pouring a shot of whiskey and sliding it down to her as her beer came.

"No strings attached, ya just look like ya could use a stiff one..." Victor said with a chuckle at her snort, slipping in a pass at her even still.

"I'll let that slide, cheers." She growled, putting back the shot and having a chaser.

Slugging back a belt of his whiskey, Victor started to wonder if his dear little brother Jimmy had a place in this whole sorted tale and if not just how this sweet thing knew him. For the first time she noticed his claws easily scratching into the wood, no fear at the sight which hardly surprised him considering his little brother always looked to be overcompensating, just curiosity. Offering her a rakish grin, he was rewarded with her sliding her glass down for a refill, sending it back brimming to the rim.

"Name's Lee, guess ya earned that much listening to me bitch and buying me a couple of drinks." Jubilee offered, slugging back her shot and chasing it down again.

"Vic, course you can call me Creed if ya like...ladies seem ta like that too." Victor offered, having met many a frail that could just roll his name over her tongue to rile him up.

"Vic it is." Jubilee chuckled.

"So, yer friends hooked up with some fella that sounds like he waited fer her ta not be a bit o' jailbait by the sound o' it." Vic offered, filling his glass full again for a swig.

"Oh god it sounds so bad when you say it like that..." Jubilee hissed.

Laughing in a low rumble, he lifted his glass to the bartender calling for another lowball, filling it a couple fingers full and sliding it over. His little Lee looked grateful, having a sip as she sat staring at the graffiti and started using a bottle cap to carve in her own work.

"Logan's not like that, but I guess he just woke up one day and found out Roguey grew up when he wasn't looking. Course he still looks the same as ever, man ages well...guess it made it easier for her ta start eyeing him as the hot piece of ass he is." Jubilee explained.

James Logan, brother dearest, finding himself a piece of tail by the sound of things Victor thought. He'd given him space ever since Three Mile Island, doing his own thing and figuring a little bit of time between wouldn't be all that bad after everything that had happened. He'd come on too strong trying to get his brother back, but somewhere something had gone wrong. When it came to tracking down his brother he started with the little pissant that had last seen him, Remy LeBeau.

That was when he found out about the one last fast one that fucker Stryker had pulled right at the end, giving his little brother a .357 lobotomy that wiped him clean. Pounding back his drink, he filled the glass full and ordered another bottle, trying hard to nurse a buzz tonight.

"Ya wanna know the worst part?" Jubilee asked, having a gulp of her whiskey with a wince.

"Why the hell not?" Victor asked, leaning over with the fresh bottle to top her back up a finger.

"I like Logan, not in the I wanna jump his bones for a stiff one, but just that he's...a good guy." Jubilee said, having a sip.

Jimmy always was a pansy Victor thought bitterly, always too soft but it always won him out with the ladies that just wouldn't look his way twice. It had always got him the promotions in all the armies they'd ever enlisted in, always had him liked by the men while Victor himself was the guy that would keep the little pukes in line and swear to hell if they didn't get over that trench they'd have more than the Germans to worry about.

"I get the feelin' there's another but in there somewhere." Victor offered.

"I just don't wanna see them fuck what they had up and get all awkward on another. Why go ruining a good friendship just cause ya got drunk and horny?" Jubilee grumbled, swinging back the last of her glass with a grimace.

"If'in they're the friends ya figure 'em ta be, I figure they can handle one bad mistake. Course ya never know, might just be the start o' somethin' a bit more'n bein' friends." Victor said, holding the bottle up in offer and grinning full of teeth as she waved him on for another top up.

"You're not Canadian by any chance are ya?" Jubilee asked, staring at him curiously.

"Ya gonna hold it against me?" Victor asked, getting his first real good look at her and noticing her unexpected blue eyes.

"Naw dude, Canadian's rock. Logan's Canadian, ya sound a lot like him. S'why I asked..." Jubilee said, smiling as her eyes fell thoughtfully staring past him.

"Lemme guess, ya like Nickelback?" Victor asked, finding himself liking this frail.

"What's wrong with Nickelback?" Jubilee asked indignant.

"Nuff said." Victor laughed lightly, pounding back his drink and topping up a fresh glass.

"Easy dude, yer gonna get blotto drinkin' that hard." Jubilee mumbled, spinning her glass around on its coaster.

Grinning at her, he just shook his head and took a swig to spite her, feeling the first hint of a good buzz hitting him as his senses blessedly dulled with the bar behind him growing quiet. If she just knew the truth she'd probably be the ones pouring drinks, as it was it was the other way around.

"I can handle my drink, looks like it might be somethin' we got in common." Victor chuckled.

"So who do you like?" Jubilee asked.

"Always was a Stompin' Tom man myself." Victor said, remembering better days when he could still go out with Jimmy and find a good bar fight.

"Good shit, I mean...good music..." Jubilee said, back peddling after a moment.

"Well ain't you just full o' surprises." Victor growled in laughter.

"Was your fellow Canuck that introduced me, caught him drinkin' and smokin' out in the garage one night lookin' like he was ready ta go bust some skulls. Asked him who it was and he told me, hell he snuck me a beer and we just listened to him for a couple of hours." Jubilee explained, putting back the last of her whiskey and waving him off as he held up the bottle.

"Nah, I better get back ta beer." Jubilee added, waving on over the bartender for a fresh bottle.

Holding up two fingers, Vic ordered up one for himself and toasted the man himself, giving the frail credit as she chugged her beer in time to him. Just like he figured there was some part o' his Jimmy left in this man Logan, doing him good to hear after all the years without his little brother by his side.

"Well, since ya seem ta know good music when it bites ya in the ass I'll let that remark about Nickelback slide." Victor chuckled.

"We all got our guilty pleasures." Jubilee mused.

"Ain't that the truth." Victor replied, keeping to himself just how guilty his were.

Damnedest thing of all happened as he sat there with his back to the bar looking out that the dregs getting drunk, but for the first time since his baby bro a silence both welcome and comfortable fell between him and little Lee, neither needing to fill it as they sat drinking and sliding the bottle back and forth as she decided against switching to beer.

Over the weeks he'd been drinking here wondering if Jimmy would show up he'd proved himself the Big Dog more than once, but watching some cocksure little shit walk up to the bar of the vacant seat next to Lee he watched as the fella had a glance to the empty bottle sitting in front of her and called for two more. Knowing a dog sniffing around his turf at a glance, he let it play wondering just how she'd treat the intruder.

"What the fuck's this?" Jubilee asked, looking at the beer that appeared before her glass of whiskey.

"Bottle of bud Babe." The fella said, raising his own for a swig.

"Well, enjoy double fistin' 'em, buddy boy." Jubilee said pushing the bottle up to him.

Victor could smell the indignation from the juiced up dandy figuring he had found himself a little piece of ass, instead finding him a genuine firecracker. Putting his hand on her to face him, she was on her feet in a second kicking his feet out of him and slamming his face into the bar that left the punk spitting teeth and blood at the floor. Out at the table of some wannabe bikers, five guys were on their feet to the bar never knowing the world of hurt they were in for.

A bar fight and a block later he was passing the bottle back to her, the beast still prowling around the back of his eyes looking for some trouble. It came as she slammed her knee right into his crotch and pulled him down to her height and planted a furious and hungry kiss to him. Tearing at her hair and feasting on her, he looked into her eyes and saw only lust in them. It was all he needed right then, leading her off back to the shit hole he'd been staying in.

The morning came as the first rays of the new day slithered their way in through the blinds drawing him awake. In his arms was his nights fun, remembering the times her nails had dug into his flesh scarring him had it not been for his heightened healing keeping up with her attacks. She lay spent and tired beside him, marked on her neck by bites and bruises, deeply slumbering with an arm draped over his broad chest.

Something about this one spoke to him in a way he had never had before, whether it was that she knew his brother or just that she had done things to him in between the dusk and dawn without shame or a fucking care. Maybe it was just that they had both been driven mad by the same man and had to find some release, but whatever it was he felt for the first time in years like facing his little brother and fighting him tooth and claw again if it'd just jog free some of the man he needed at his side again.

"Lemme guess? No room service?" His little Lee asked waking to the new day.

"Naw, but there's a hell o' a greasy spoon a block down that'll fill yer guts and clog yer arteries for a fair price." Victor chuckled, stealing her lips in his own.

Tasting blood and feeling the sting of pain, she had his bottom lip between her teeth only to let go at his throaty growl. Just like his little brother ta go pick up some frail and pass off some feisty filly like this he thought, snatching her up into his arms. Whatever the bad blood was between them, he'd let it air on seeing his brother again after all the years between. Right now the only thing he wanted was a hearty breakfast and another go at the girl in his arms as he kicked the door open to the shower.

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Author's Note : While it's more of a Post The Last Stand fic with some future Rogan in store, as far as the first X-men movie goes that wasn't Sabretooth, I'll let it be Caliban as that was just some growly wrestling poser.

Liev Schreiber set the bar, so this is an Origin Victor Creed for better or worse (story wise) as he was just everything Victor should be. Intelligent, vicious, driven yet still charismatic and morbidly funny.


	2. Chapter 2

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

Tempting as it was to follow her back, Victor knew all he had to do was wait and see, he'd marked her in those hours they had worked out all the primal urges stirred after the bar fight. He'd caught himself watching her ghost her way through the fray dropping men with cheap tricks and hauntingly familiar attacks that left him without a doubt as to who she had learnt them from. If any o' his Jimmy was lurking around, he'd be coming for blood after a sniff of that firecracker and the thought thrilled him.

It was time to do a little digging just the same, find out just who this Miss Jubilation Lee was, pulling out his phone to have a look at the photos he'd taken of the contents of her wallet when she had lain spent and sleeping on his bed. Times like this he almost wished he hadn't killed Bradley, wondering just who out of his line of usual associates to set on this task. Flipping through his contacts finding one suiting to the task, he dialled and waited.

"Time ta pay the piper." Victor greeted, catching the hitched breath on the other end of the line.

Phones took out all the fun of surprising someone, never carrying the stink of their fear and the way their heart would beat all the faster. But he didn't have time to go making a house call, playing a waiting game he had no idea how long it could take. It'd been years since he caught a sniff of his baby brother, he wasn't about to pass up this chance.

"What, what can I do for you Mister Creed?" The fretful voice asked.

"I'm sending you some pictures o' someone I want ya ta fill me in on, all that internet crap I don't got time fer figuring out and any bit o' dirt ya can find." Victor explained.

"Of course Mister Creed, I'll, I'll call you and soon as I have anything." The fearful man agreed.

Hanging up, with hours to wait he figured maybe it was time to get back on task himself. Catching that first whiff o' his baby brother after all these years had sidetracked him, he had more than enough leads ta find him now after meeting up with that little minx last night. It was time to earn his pay.

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Parking her borrowed bike, Jubilee pulled off his leather riding jacket and hung it back up along with her own helmet to find the gas can to top up tank. As much as she just wanted to go get something for her aches and pains and hit the pool for a long soak under the sun, she had to get down to giving it a good thorough wash first. Logan didn't mind her borrowing it so long as she asked first, but given the late hour she'd needed to get out of the house along with just what Logan was doing at the time or rather who, she figured he'd give her a pass.

A half hour later had the grime of the road washed off, a fresh coat of wax on it, and the tires looking factory fresh. Not her best work, but a definite peace offering incase he got pissy. Stripping off her soaking wet T figuring it wasn't concealing much, she slung it over her shoulders and headed on in to the kitchen for a rummage of the fridge and some advil. Hearing wet feet slapping across the floors behind her, she looked to the leaded glass kitchen cabinets and saw Marie behind her dressed in a bikini.

"What the heck happened ta you?" Marie asked, walking up and trailing fingers lightly down her back.

Wincing at the touch, it hadn't been that long ago hell would have frozen over to see Marie dressed as she was let alone getting so personal. Yet the touch had found another sore, twisting to catch herself in the cabinet for a look to find trails of scratches and welts running down her back with some bruises here and there. She couldn't tell at a glance which had been from the bar fight and which had been everything after other than the scratches, recalling just how he had growled as she'd bit him hard on the shoulder earning herself the mark on her neck.

"Uh...long story, but you seem to have your share too." Jubilee said switching the subject, noticing some bites and bruises on her friend.

Marie blushed as if caught, Jubilee once again feeling those mixed emotions about the whole thing that had her needing to get out last night. That they shared a wall hadn't helped, making sure to move her bed to the opposite end after getting woken to a headboard trying to hammer through the wall.

"Just...I dunno, be careful and if ya need someone to talk to I'm here for ya." Jubilee offered.

"Ah hell, I forgot...how much did ya hear?" Marie asked blushing further.

"Oh Logan, Oh Logan, Oh Gawd Logan!" Jubilee breathed in a high pitched voice.

"Oh my god..." Marie blushed, hiding her face in her hands.

"Yeah...you're just lucky we got moved to the teachers wing when we graduated to the Major Leagues. Imagine if you did that back in our dorms." Jubilee laughed.

"I gotta remember that for next time." Marie chuckled, heading off to the fridge for a rummage and snagging a bottle of water.

"Like I said, just be careful. Now if you'll excuse me I have a date with the pool and letting my poor body rest." Jubilee remarked, rushing off to her room to change.

By the time she got down to the pool she found Marie already out sunning herself on a deck chair, ever since the cure the girl had been worshipping the sun every chance she got and no one really could blame her. Diving in and doing a few laps, she dove deep and enjoyed the quiet found down below with just her heart pounding in her ears. Staying down as long as she could, she let herself float up to the surface and enjoyed the peace of it with her eyes closed against the midday sun.

"Logan wanted to know where ya went." Marie remarked after a while.

"Down to that biker bar he likes just outside o' NYC, The Kick and Punch." Jubilee mumbled, wondering just where the man himself was.

"You get into a fight?" Marie asked, eyeing her friend critically.

"Yes Nurse Roguey, I got into a fight." Jubilee sighed, cracking an eye to peep at Marie.

"Hey, it's my job ta bandage all ya idjits up remember, and I'm a paramedic not a nurse." Marie spat.

"Okay, okay. Yeesh. I'll let ya poke and prod me once I'm done soaking." Jubilee growled, kicking a spray up at her sunbathing friend.

"Good, cause the mouth is a cesspool of filth, just might have ta get ya on some antibiotics ta be safe with those bite marks and the cuts I saw on your knuckles.

"Pot Kettle." Jubilee teased.

"Well, I don't think I got much ta worry about with Logan...not like some dude ya picked up at a biker bar." Marie fired back.

"So just where is our Field Leader huh?" Jubilee asked, rolling over and swimming up to the side to lean against the sun warmed concrete.

"Our Field Leader? Hey now, I just fly the jet and patch ya up. I don't go puttin' on the leather anymore. He took the Juniors off to check out a hit Cerebro had. It was down in New York so they just took a truck rather than the jet." Marie explained.

Thinking on it, Jubilee always felt weird about keeping that thing active after the Professor had been killed. That it had it's own autonomous function at just spitting out co-ordinates to manifested Mutants and spikes of mutant activity always creeped her out, thinking of what one madman had tried to do with both it and the Professor.

"And on that note, I need a shower. I'll see ya down for my poke and prod Roguey." Jubilee said with a shiver, figuring she might as well get it over with.

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Pulling up out front of the garage, Logan threw it in park and looked back to the Juniors with him all in their civvies. He'd been left on the reserve with Ororo and the others heading off to the West Coast to handle a situation with their silent partner, Worthington Industries. Eager as they were for a mission, the kids were clearly relieved to be back home none the worse for wear other than the trip to his favourite truck stop for some burgers.

"Alright folks, get. Just remember ya got training tomorrow so a trip to the gym wouldn't hurt." Logan called, watching the four kids pile on out.

Turning his gaze back to the garage, he saw his baby there looking showroom ready with a wash and wax. Credit where it was due, he could always trust two people to put his things back just where they had found it, his Darlin' and her motormouth friend. Knowing he still had a date with a quick wash for this truck, he left it out rather than parking it back with the school fleet. Climbing out, he caught a sniff of something that had a growl growing in his chest.

Catching a scent, he raced up to his bike and took a heady breath catching it all over his jacket mixed up in Jubilee. Blind rage like he hadn't known since the school had been attacked filled him, mixed up with that twisted sense of deja vu that denied him a reason why. Running into the school he caught her scent easily and pounded up the stairs, trailing off into her room. Throwing the door open, he followed it to the bath and tore the door open with screams of anger and shock filling the air.

"What the fuck Logan!?" Jubilee screamed, covering up herself as best she could under the spray of the shower.

"Who, where is he?!" Logan roared, ignoring her as he felt fearful for her for a reason he couldn't figure out.

"Get the fuck out!" Jubilee shrieked, throwing a bar of soap at him.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard the feet trampling down the hall, people asking after him though he couldn't focus. The scent on his jacket had him beyond reason, taking note of the bruises and bite marks on the woman before him, scratches that flashed to bloody claw marks to vanish with the blink of an eye. Frozen in place, he didn't even notice as she cast off all sense of modesty and charged him, slamming a knee in his crotch that sent him stumbling back enough to slam the door against his head.

"What the hell Logan!?" Marie screamed, rushing in to glare furiously at him.

Fighting against the red that threatened him, he didn't even know how to answer the question. Staring at her, he saw her fury fade to fear, taking tentative steps up to him to take his face in her hands.

"I don't know Marie, I...where was she?" Logan asked, trying to rally his thoughts and hold onto that wisp of a face that wouldn't come with the scent.

"At that stupid bar ya just had ta go introduce her to, ya idjit. Now what the hell are ya doin' bargin' inta her room and her shower for fuck sake!?" Marie growled.

Looking around and noticing just where he really was for the first time, his feet had carried him without rhyme or reason just having to see her and know she was safe. Feeling like a right 'idjit', he leaned in to kiss Marie once and took her hands in his own begging her apology.

"Oh no Mister, ya ain't gettin' off that easy. I wanna know what had ya tearin' through here like ya were, bustin' in on Lee in the shower for cryin' out loud." Marie spat, holding a stern finger up at him.

"Can you two take your lover spat outta my room so I can get dressed, then maybe we can figure out what's got Logan tweaked ta find out what my Full Monty looks like!" Jubilee yelled from the bath.

Mad as she was and had every right to be, Logan had to thank Jubilee for dialling the tension down a notch catching the smirk Marie threw at the door. Leading the way back out into the hall, he tried to figure out just what to say.

"She borrowed my jacket along with my bike I'm guessin', but that ain't the half o' it. I don't know who, or why, but there's the stink o' someone all over my jacket now that I know is a world o' trouble and hurt and I just had ta know she was alright..." Logan weakly explained, once again seeing the concern writ on her face.

"Wait, ya mean she ran into someone ya...you remember?" Marie asked with the fury fading from her voice.

"I, maybe. I can't remember, it's just...flashes. Claws, blood, always fighting..." Logan whispered, the weight of untold years pressing down on him suddenly.

"Well, she said it was a long story. I'm gonna go get my kit and I'll meet ya down in the kitchen, maybe she can try and fill in the blanks for ya once she's got some clothes on." Marie sighed, slapping him across the chest once, then twice hard thinking of how he'd just humiliated their friend.

"I deserve that..." Logan chuckled, leading the way back down the stairs.

"Ya deserve a good knee to yer nuts..." Marie growled.

"She already did that." Logan offered.

"Well she should do it again. Stay outta trouble till I get back." Marie said, leaning in for a quick kiss.

Heading into the kitchen, he didn't need his heightened hearing to catch the whispered questions and the gossip already swirling. He'd have to give Ro a call asap, but right now he owed someone a hell o' an apology and had more than enough questions for her. Riffling around the cabinets, he found some coffee and got a fresh pot going, digging around next for some cookies knowing the best way to handle a mad Jubilee involved sugar. Just as the pot was finished brewing, he heard the angry steps trampling down the stairs, fixing her cup first hoping it'd buy him enough time to apologise.

"Okay I know you got a memory like swiss cheese, but the next time you do that I'm paffing you through a wall, comprede?" Jubilee growled, snatching the offered cup of coffee.

"I'm sorry." Logan said, holding out a plate of cookies.

She took three, flopping down on a chair and dunking them in her coffee thoroughly ignoring him. Hearing the elevator doors open, he saw Marie round the corner with her duffle full of all the stuff she needed filling her role as the teams Paramedic. Snapping on some gloves, she got into full swing poking their teammate and friend, taking a throat swab and cleaning scabbed over cuts. He never forgot how fragile everyone else was, Marie most of all for all intent and purpose just an everyday woman after years of hiding away behind her once deadly skin.

"Alright, two today, one every day after till they're done. Ya already got some inflamation in yer one hand that stinks o' an infection. Hell girl, next time ya get in a fight wear gloves, y'hear?" Marie counselled.

"Just what the hell where ya doin' in a fight anyway?" Logan asked.

"Uh...starting it. I...might have been a bit drunk and tweaked up at the time. I'll let the sleepin' dog lie as far as what two consenting adults do in the privacy o' their own room, but I might have my own opinion on the matter that had me needin' ta get out for a drink after gettin' woken up by someone's headboard tryin' to drill it's way through our wall." Jubilee said, looking between the two 'offenders' in her own mind.

"Startin' it?" Marie asked, smacking her friend.

"It just happened, some juiced up biker wannabe wouldn't take no for an answer and got to manhandling me. I was just wired up by that point and reacted, slammed his face into the bar. Well, then his buddies got up tryin' ta start something but the locals weren't havin' none of that..." Jubilee explained.

"So that's how you got...?" Logan asked, waving a hand to encompass her thinking of all the marks she'd seen on her.

"Uh...partly, picked up some dude after to work the rest o' my frustration out on. We went back to his place and...think we got into it just as much as two consenting adults I know." Jubilee said angrily, crunching away at a cookie.

"Who?" Logan pressed.

"Just some dude. He threw a pass at me moment I sat down, but then we just got to talking over some CC. Actually he said he's Canadian too, kinda reminded me of you." Jubilee recalled, throwing Marie a look when she looked up at the revelation of the likeness between Logan and the mystery man.

"You get a name?" Logan asked, finally having a sip of his coffee.

"Of course I got a name, god...nice opinion of me ya got. Said it was Vic, Vic Creed..." Jubilee groused.

Anything else was interrupted by Logan's mug shattering against the floor, the man himself already out in the garage jumping on his bike. Chasing after him after a moment of stunned inaction, he was already pulling out down the drive by the time they yelled after him.

"What the hell's his problem?" Jubilee asked turning to Marie.

"I, I think he's remembering more and it's all because of whoever the heck ya got to...got ta screwing last night." Marie said with a fearful shudder of breath.

"What if he's just trippin' and crossin' wires and doesn't know Vic at all, dude just seemed like Logan. Kinda more a badass, no offense, but just the whole growly package." Jubilee said, thinking again of the man she met in the bar last night.

"Ah hell, I don't know. I trust him, but..." Marie clenched her fists in her hair, already his bike long gone as he put distance between them.

"But if he's wrong? But we can't just leave the school without anyone around, fuck. You think you can keep the home fire burning with the Juniors while I go make sure he doesn't go do something stupid?" Jubilee asked.

"Yeah, hell...if he does ya got my permission ta knee him a few times in the nuts till he comes to his senses, they'll grow back." Marie growled, fighting the urge to punch the wall as she stalked back into the mansion.

Left alone with her own worries and doubts, Jubilee raced off to the truck waiting in the drive and found the keys sitting up on the visor. Throwing it in reverse for a quick turn, she slammed it in drive and hoped she could catch up to Logan before he did anything stupid.

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	3. Chapter 3

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

Standing in the elevator as it rose up the stories, Victor stood holding a bouquet of flowers. Beside him was a family, husband and wife complete with a curious girl who stared at him unabashed. Smiling down to her, he waved at the child with wiggled fingers. He loved children, full of so much potential and an uncertain future. Over the years he had enough encounters where fate brought him back to meet the orphans he'd made to see the men and women they became after crossing his path. Fate smiled today as the elevator came to a stop, the parents ushering out their little girl who waved back at him before they closed.

Whistling a little tune, he waited alone for the lift to stop once more at the floor of his bit of business. Stepping out into the hall even from the elevator he could smell the gun oil and the nervous sweat of the men he had been asked to pay a visit to. Coming to the suite, he set down the bouquet and took off his jacket figuring there was no point in ruining it. Folding it neatly and setting it down on the floor he picked up the bouquet and gave a knock.

"Shave and a hair cut..." Victor whispered, listening to the sound of weapons drawn and safeties clicked off.

Counting out the distinct scuff of the shoes inside he figured they were all there and accounted, sniffing as he caught their scent and noted one had the same taste in aftershave as himself. Holding the bouquet over the peephole, he waited whistling his tune for the usual reply. He could hear them whispering to another, one asking if it was the take out only for the closest at the door to relay the mystery flowers he saw blocking his view of the hallway.

"Delivery." Victor said as cheerily as his he could.

"You have wrong the address, we didn't order any flowers." The man inside called.

"Nope, says right here..." Victor said as he feigned reaching for a clipboard he didn't have.

"You have the wrong place, go away or I'm calling the cops." The man inside pressed more aggressively.

Listening as the man on point called for two others to take cover at either side of the hall, Victor forced the act a bit more. Faking a phone call to his 'boss' to double check, he inhaled deeply of the adrenaline rushing through their veins as their hearts hammered getting ready to handle the unexpected situation.

"Nope, says I got the right place, you boys gonna sign for this..." Victor said with a drawl.

The sound of the latch opening echoed in the hall, the door thrown open a crack with the steel linear slide keeping it closed tight against intrusion. Flashing his badge, the officer looked about ready to tell off some hapless delivery boy when he had to look up at instead at the imposing visage before him grinning back down. Hoofing the door with a kick that could have fell a horse, Victor heard the cry of pain and the crunch and crack of bones breaking. Stepping into the hallway, the men standing guard opened fire with all they had. Greeting their assault with fanged smile, he looked down at the bloody stains that dotted his person and took another invigorating hit of that delicious aroma of fear that washed off them.

Walking up casually as he ignored them while they reloaded their spent clips, he admired the decore and trailed two fingers down the wall leaving rents in the plaster as his claws easily ripped through the wall. In the bedroom he could hear the last man already calling for backup, but it would be too late by then. Pointing their pistols at him, the pair of officers left on guard trembled with fear knowing it was a futile gesture as they fired their fresh clips into him at nearly point blank range.

"Now since that's all over with..." Victor growled.

The first fell to his claws staring down dumbly at the bloody gash that had once been his chest, yet the other he had special plans for. Gripping him by the throat, Victor started whistling once more and walked him out to the balcony and hurled him out bodily with his scream carrying all the way down until flesh met pavement with panicked screams. Three down, one to go. Knocking at the door to the bedroom, bullets bit into his flesh after tearing through the cheap wood.

"Two bits..." Victor chuckled, opening it as if invited to look down on the man fumbling to reload.

Slashing his throat with a scolding finger, he watched as the light died in the man's eyes all while he clutched at the mortal wound. A new scent filled the suite, terror and piss from the bathroom compliments of whoever the four officers had been guarding. Walking up, Victor knocked on the door and heard the fearful yelp inside.

"Remember to flush." Victor chuckled, walking out without another word.

Already he could hear the sirens rushing through the concrete canyons but he'd be long gone by the time they got here. Picking up his jacket he flung it over his back and walked on down the hall to the service elevator. As far as messages went, he sure this one would speak volumes. It didn't matter if you were a dirty cop, if you crossed his employer you'd end up just as dead as any gutter trash. Hitting the button for the basement, he started humming thinking about the reunion he looked forward to.

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A shit, shave and a shower later Victor slumped down in the booth of the diner his guy had specified, ordering up a burger cooked rare giving the waitress a wink as she set down his mug of coffee. The thing he liked about this guy that had him last longer than most of the rest was that he knew not to ask questions, when to shut up, and how to keep it cool. Likely watching from a parked car, he came in and sat down like he was expected and ordered up a hot turkey sandwich with some greens on the side. Instead of coffee he took a cup of tea with the bag on the side and a lemon slice, dipping it until the brew was just to his liking. Whether Shiro was his real name he didn't care, just so long as he knew where to find him when he needed him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Shiro greeted, pushing across a manila folder.

Unravelling the bit of twine, Victor flipped through the pages inside surprised to see how thick they really were. Pulling out the stack, he was greeted with old news articles telling of a car accident of the affluent Lee's leaving behind a daughter. From there it went on to the usual paperwork from the system, bouncing the girl from group homes to foster care until the trail went cold only to reappear a few years later now in New York as a ward of none other than Charles Francis Xavier.

"From graduation she goes from being a student under the care of the school to a staff member teaching gymnastics and physical education." Shiro added, having followed the pages.

"I'll have ta remember that bit about gymnastics." Victor chuckled, already imagining the fun he could have.

Now it seemed to get into all the usual stuff he couldn't be bothered with, a whole new language that had him just wanting to gut someone. In his line of business a profile meant a whole world of difference from what the internet used it for, though he had to agree her picture cast her in a different light than the woman he had seen walk into the bar last night. Flipping through the pages, Shiro played connect the dots from her 'Friends' including their own profiles.

"She doesn't really use her account much, most of it being bounced back to her email which I couldn't get into. That network is surprisingly tight.. The pictures I did manage to get of her were tagged in her friends profiles. The correspondences she has the most with are to a Marie D'Ancanto, Kathrine Pryde and a Robert Drake. She also ahem, 'pokes' almost on a daily basis a Logan whose profile is similarly little used as her own." Shiro explained as Victor flipped through the pages.

The last profile was the one he had to chuckle at, his little brother brought into living colour with the 'tagged' photos of him linking to the others. He could tell just by looking that this Marie was the 'Roguey' he had heard about that Jimmy had shacked up with, surely having a bit o' that feistiness in her but looking to have that bit o' something needing to be protected that really got his baby brother hard.

"Whaddya know about him?" Victor asked wondering if Shiro was holding out.

"He's a ghost, he just appears on the grid shortly after Miss D'Ancanto at the school. Just Logan as if his first name is Mister." Shiro noted, sipping his tea.

Putting all the print outs back in the folder and shoving them back across, he pulled a wad of cash out and stripped enough of it for their meals and a tip to the waitress. For the first time since entering the diner Shiro looked to relax and enjoy his meal at his leaving. It was about time to get back to the bar to wait and see just who would show up.

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Sitting at the table with an eye to the door he racked up his bill one drink at a time, watching the patrons file in the later in the day it got. He almost hoped it would be his but of fun from the night before to come, he could stand to put off his reunion for one more night wondering just what sort of games they could get into with everything he had learned about her. Over the years he had met many a lady that could keep pace with him, but somewhere along the way things usually fell out with more than once involving firearms and some fancy martial arts.

Something about his little Lee tickled him in a way he hadn't been since before the Cold War had a name, back when the world lived in the fear of two clashing titans risking to call down the thunder on all of them. Between the fight the night before and all that rutting in bed along with his bit of work, the beast behind his eyes was resting after running loose leaving him sated. Having another sip of his drink, he tried to quell another thirst as the door open with just the man he had been waiting for.

Leaning back in his chair, he watched with the patience of a cat stalking its prey waiting to pounce. Jimmy looked around the bar with his own beast behind his eyes prowling looking for blood, a sniff all it took for it to pick him out of the crowd. It was like the Yukon all over again, but instead of the slow wet satisfying 'shlunk' of his bone claws tearing their way through his flesh it was a sudden and sharp 'snickt' as the adamantium laced claws sliced free.

Flipping the table and kicking out of his chair Victor stood ready for him with his own claws free and ready. The screams of the scurrying patrons were nothing more than ambiance, the weapons drawn by his ilk nothing more than a nuisance.

"It's your move Jimmy." Victor practically purred, a sharks smile spread across his lips.

The flicker of uncertainty across his brother's eyes had him roar in rage, lunging at him seeking an outlet for his anger. They clashed in a tangle of claws biting flesh, sinking through their meaty hides to leave a rent mess that healed quickly. Those left made their way for the bar calling for rounds and placing bets on the fight. It brought something out in Jimmy as he renewed the struggle to win sheathing his claws and striking with fists that hammered hard and broke bone.

"The names Logan!" 'Jimmy' roared, throwing a punch that shattered Victor's jaw..

Spitting teeth even as new ones grew, Victor smiled up with a mouthful of blood and wondered just who this man before him was, just who had walked away from Three Mile Island that day. The introduction was long overdue it seemed, entwining his fingers and slamming both fists into his baby brothers jaw flinging him through the air to shatter a vacant table. The claws were out again with a 'snickt' as he lunged at him. Roaring as the claws sunk into his chest, Victor dug under his rib cage and pieced a lung that had his brother falling to his knees gasping for breath and coughing blood as the wound healed.

Walking up to the bar, he ordered up a bottle of scotch and threw down enough to cover the damages. The one good bit of advice his dear dead Daddy ever gave him was not to shit where you sleep, figuring he'd taken a liking to this bar. Popping the cork for a pull, he walked back to loom over his brother.

"Well then Logan, just why the fuck are ya here?" Victor asked, having one last swig before offering the bottle.

He could tell he didn't know why, that he was just a dog driven mad at a scent. He hoped wherever Stryker was he was rotting in that circle of hell, it all of lead back to that one man. Placing the bottle down, he walked off to the door noticing all his earlier care over his jacket had been for naught as he poked a finger through it. Standing there he looked back on his brother who knelt frozen in awful indecision. The beast that remembered was out for his blood for all the wrong reasons, but the man this Logan was had his thirst slaked leaving him with more questions than ever before without a doubt.

"When yer ready for another round baby brother, I'm sure you'll be able ta find me." Victor remarked standing at the door, stepping past without a look back.

Heading back to his shitty little hotel in need of a shower and a change of clothes, with the night still young he'd have to find a different bit of entertainment tonight. Victor figured his brother could use a night to think on it all, wondering if that mire he called a memory would cough up anymore of the man he needed at his back again.

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Author's Note : Hope everyone enjoys this chapter, and thanks to whylime, Jeannie and bloody-manga for the reviews!


	4. Chapter 4

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

He had been willing to see how things were going to play out and slip back on his way and check again in a few months to a year tops, but something about seeing his baby brother stumbling out of that bar looking like a wounded dog was enough to make him growl in irritation and flick off his half smoked butt.

Wandering down the back alleys lined with filth hidden behind the bright and gleaming storefronts on the other side, Victor just had to wonder about his baby brother for the mumbling he was hearing alone. It took him straight back to the last time he had really made a play to get back in his good graces after that falling out they had that had taken decades to build to a head. What was a couple of worldwide wars and some supposed police actions between family, even after the firing squad his baby brother was still at his side, but maybe that was just because of the shared cell and leg irons he had to muse.

"Tyger, Tyger burning bright..." Victor said softly as he clenched another cigarette between his lips to lit up.

That got a reaction if the 'snickt' of Logan's claws tearing free was any indication, a desperate lunge easily dodged met with a kick to the chest that hurt a lot more than he remembered it to. Drawing on his cigarette and staring down at his brother, Victor raised his brow in genuine interest at how easily Logan had dug into the yielding asphalt to slow his tumble.

"You killed her!" Logan roared as he lunged again with fists poised at Victor.

Taking both sets of adamantium laced claws to his chest, he grabbed him by the head and head him there to stare deep into those steely grey eyes filled with confusion and rage. Down in there somewhere had to be the man he longed to meet again, the brother that has seen him through a civil war they had no business to be in other than the fact that it was something to do at the time.

"Lets just see how thick this skull o' yers is now..." Victor questioned.

Throwing Logan at the nearest wall only to hear a metallic ringing, it set his own teeth on edge thinking just what it must sound like in the own man's head. A shake of his head and a flash of teeth was all Logan did before pressing his next attack, an attack Victor met gleefully seeing more and more of his brother with every flash of claws and roar of anger.

"I killed her alright runt, gutted her and left her fer dead fer you ta find." Victor lied, swearing he felt the roar of rage right in his bones as the beast pulled at his chain.

The fight was turning out to be everything the one in the bar wasn't, filled with the bestial and raw emotions of his brother driven to his limits and letting go. Try as he might Victor knew deep down they had the same hungry animal gnawing at their insides and Jimmy was just better at suffering the pain and keeping it caged up. He had to let his out otherwise it'd eat him alive, but that didn't mean he had to let it rule him. Like throwing Christians to the Lions, he fed victim after victim to that Sabretoothed beast locked deep in his soul that was always looking for the next meal to sate its hunger.

"I killed her just like you killed our dear ol' daddy Jimmy, ran my claws right on through her." Victor pressed.

Breathing in the scent of his brother and drinking its intoxicating aroma, like they said you knew your own and deep under all that guilt and honour was an animal, a wolverine that would take down a deer by clawing its way on up to tear out its throat. Met with the sudden tang of salt that meant only one thing, he stared down to Logan seeing the first tear fall down his cheek.

"I killed her..." Logan whispered as his claws vanished.

"Who...?" Victor asked ignoring the familiar itch of his flesh mending itself from mortal wound to scab in seconds.

"Jeannie, I...killed her." Logan croaked.

Roaring loud enough to shake the very windows that lined the alleyway, he took his brother up bodily and slammed his flesh into the brick wall hard enough to shatter it. Throwing him limply down into the trash where he belonged, Victor had to wonder just what it would take to bring the man he longed to have at his side back even if it meant having him try and chain down his beast seeing all too much of his own in it running free.

"This isn't over Jimmy, this ain't gonna be over till ya remember just who ya are." Victor promised as he stalked off.

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Kicking open the door to the bar and looking around to the mess and ruin, Jubilee had to fight for control as she felt the itch in her hands and the pressure in her chest. Logan had been here sure enough but he was long gone. It had cost her two speeding tickets to try and keep pace with him, a third cop pulling her over and giving her a warning and a side order of 'Daddy know's best' that had her swallowing her pride with a grimace if only to get out of another one. Heading to the bar she ordered up two beers and a shot of whisky, having her boilermaker first and then finally tasting the second of the lagers.

"What the fuck happened?" Jubilee spat the question with a growl of her frustration.

The bartender looked her up and down and then gave a glance to the blood that someone was mopping up, answering with a shrug and nodding to the few men down the bar still talking about whatever kerfuffle had broken out. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Jubilee swore the moment she found Logan she was going to cash in Marie's vouchers and knee him in his family jewels a couple of times before she really got into tearing a strip off his behind. She didn't need this kinda shit happening when she was still missing a couple of nights of proper sleep.

"Yo, what the fuck?" Jubilee yelled down to the trio, tilting her head off to the mess of blood on the floors.

Looking irritated at first only to have their eyes fall lecherously over her, the men went back to ignoring her. Throwing her knuckles at the bar all the while, she pounded back her beer raised the empty to the bartender calling for another. Pissed off as she was she wouldn't mind another bar fight but thought it would be a shame without Vic there to enjoy it with her. By the look of things Logan already had his and was off ignoring her calls, she'd have to check in with Marie once more to see if he'd finally manned up to give her a call and see if she couldn't get any other vouchers for when she caught up to the bastard.

"Kids these days, no manners." One of the trio said loudly having another glance at her.

Grinding her teeth, Jubilee stripped a few bills off a wad of cash and threw them down for her drinks along with a tip. Where was Roguey when she needed her, people were about to need a paramedic and they didn't even know it Jubilee chuckled while slipping off her stool to walk up to the trio. They looked the sort of men who lived off petty crime. Theft, violence and intimidation likely their bread and butter. She knew a couple of men who could teach them a lesson in the latter points, figuring she'd have to sub in this time.

"Did you see a guy that looks like he could model underwear and kick your sorry ass at the same time?" Jubilee asked, slugging back her beer as she waited for an answer.

"I don't know who ya think you are girlie..." The wiry one of the bunch started.

The bar had seen one fight already today, two if you counted the fact that her one had fallen in those early hours of the morning when most people still considered it last night. Sighing in frustration, she bit her tongue having always hated being called 'girlie'. The pressure against her chest was suffocating and she was ready to just let it all out, no way in hell these boys didn't know just who and what Logan and Vic were. Problem was the boilermaker was going straight to her head and she didn't know if she could control it.

"You guys don't know just how lucky ya got..." Jubilee growled in her best impersonation of Logan as she stalked off.

Not three steps away from the bar she felt a hand take her by her shoulder and spin her about, the thought of any of these men touching her lighting her already short fuse. Clenching her teeth tight and knowing she was sparkling by the snaps and pops surrounding her, the hand was taken aback quickly as the two others started digging in their jackets for their tools of the trade. She didn't give them the chance throwing her hands wide and blasting them.

"Fuck..." Jubilee swore hearing the sound of a pump action shotgun down the bar reminding her all too much of a story Rogue had told her back when she had first met Logan.

"You can just keep your hands where I can see them missy." The bartender called out with the authority given to him by a 12 gauge.

Closing her eyes and clenching her fists, she'd only ever tired this in the Danger Room and right about now she wished she had some earbuds in as things were about to get loud. Inspired by one too many rounds of COD with the boys, her improvised Flash Bang went off and had her deaf and damn near blind but she was still in better shape than the rest of the folks. Racing out the door and bolting down the street, she had time to think maybe Ororo wasn't too wrong about her suggestion for some Anger Management sessions.

"When I find you Logan Ima kick yer ass!" Jubilee growled, fighting not to puke at the way the world was still spinning.

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Author's Note : Just a little something to try and get the ball rolling on this story again, work has been a real bother. Hope all you kind folks who have been following it enjoy. Toodles!


	5. Chapter 5

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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Working through the red the only way he could, Victor punched another wall and felt his bones splinter and shatter with his full enraged strength behind it. With clenched teeth to find a moments satisfaction from it, he caught a trash can loosely in hand and hurled it at a wall watching it bounce twice before rolling down the alley. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time for this kind of lapse, growling at his reflection and shattering the window from which it was cast.

Out on the street ahead he could see the every day Dick and Jane American looking at him in shock and disapproval, grinning at them and holding their gaze in his feral eyes as he pulled his fly down and took a leak right there against the wall. There was no way Jimmy wouldn't be able to follow him now if he got enough of his marbles together for a fight, but that was a slim hope with the mess he'd left back down the alley.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" Victor asked of one who took one step down the alley looking like he had a few words to say.

Growling in frustration at the man standing their immobile, he zipped up and walked past to wipe his hands on a jacket that looked to be worth a few bills at the least towards a good bottle of something to sit and sip. Joining the pedestrian traffic of good old New York City, he had watched it grow at a distance long before Lady Liberty ever called for the tired, poor and huddled masses.

He had two options left to him, either find another job or hit the road and find the closest hot spot and get his hands dirty. The one thing was that there was always some dictator or war criminal out there making a mess of the world, so he never had to look that far. It was the one thing that kept him that step ahead of the beast gnawing straight through his gut, a sense to look for someone even worse than himself and introduce them to everything wrong he'd ever done in his life nice and slow.

"Goody, goody, two shoe..." Victor sang thinking of a great movie he'd seen once.

Good and bad meant fuck all when you were the one with the gun, and he loved staring down that barrel knowing someone was about to shit their drawers when he got up bloody and with a mouth full of buck shot looking for more. The pain made it all the better, paying it back two fold for every slug or bullet he had to dig out of his hide just to let the son of a bitch know who the big dog was.

Breathing in the scent of everyone that made way for him walking down the crowded street, he was running out of time and his options were getting right slim looking to every set of eyes that had the courage to meet his gaze. Ducking into the first bar he saw and bulling his way up slamming a fistful of dollars down and calling for a bottle of bourbon, he didn't even bother with the shot glass set beside it and started to chug it on down until he could finally taste it.

"You want your change?" The bartender asked.

"What the fuck do you think?" Victor asked wiping his mouth and staring down the man to see him fold what became his tip and stuff it into a pocket.

Looking around him to see people making room for him, he remembered back to a day when there would have been some Made Men to at least provide some sport. The best he could hope for these days were some Russians even if he had enough of them back in the eighties when they finally tucked their tail between their legs.

"Wonder how the War on Drugs is goin' these days." Victor mumbled, pounding back his bottle to catch the first scent of interest from the ladies looking for a walk on the wild side.

Seeing the door open from the street blowing in all that stink of garbage and exhaust, he found himself taking another quick sniff finding something he could use just then. A mix of anger, rage and irritation laced with concern and worry had him turning to see his distraction from the other night scanning around sharply and halfway to slamming the door again when their eyes met.

"You!"

Grinning and holding his ground, he watched her plow her way through to stop just long enough to tell off a few folks that were suddenly wearing their drinks in her passing. Finishing his bourbon and calling for a round, by the time she was even staring up past his navel the heads on the beers were already dying behind him.

"Who the fuck are you!?" Jubilee growled with a finger thrust right against his chest.

Had it been anyone else he might well have snapped it in half, but he knew just the kind of fun she could be and that was the kind of option he hadn't even thought of for feeding his beast. Grinning down to her and turning his back, he pushed one of the two beers to the empty stool beside him and went about enjoying his own.

"Don't you dare turn your back to me, the moment Logan smelt you on me he was going ape shit. Who the fuck are you to him?" Jubilee yelled without a care to the business professionals on their lunch break giving her the stink eye.

Grinning thinking how it had all played out just as he had expected, he had a swig of his beer and wondered just what his little Geisha Girl was really good for with all the bluster she was spewing. She was good in a fight and another place he knew, but right now he was wondering if she wasn't writing checks her ass couldn't cash and he'd have to give her a bit of credit on the house to earn himself some interest.

"Ya wouldn't believe me if I fuckin' told ya babe." Victor answered.

He remembered just the stink of piss and vinegar with her hackles right high the night before at that dandy calling her a babe, the hairs at the back of most folks neck doing a fine job no matter how far removed they thought they were from prowling around in the jungles. He got it in spades right along with the stench of ozone before a lightning strike or a powder keg about to blow. Glancing at her through the mirror lined with liquor bottles, he saw the first hint of something gnawing at her looking for its release.

Climbing onto the empty stool and pounding back her drink, he pushed the last of his across and waved for another round. She drank it looking to drown whatever was eating away at her insides, something that only ever brought him a moments relief most times unless he got down to some real drinking. Yet as she clutched her face in hand and growled if only to let out what she couldn't find the words to voice, he thought again to his brother suffering in some filthy ally mad as a dog with grief he'd forgotten just how to handle.

"Head south on down the block, yer first left and down a ways. Long as that pansy hasn't gotten up from his ass kicking ya should find him there." Victor said oddly quiet as he stared into his beer.

He didn't bother looking at her though she was staring at him in a mix of relief, anger and shock. Sipping his drink and hoping to hell there was some bit of business close, as much as he longed to relive the other night straight up with whatever fight she'd put up he felt in the long run he'd get a better return on her running off to haul Jimmy's ass out of the gutter.

"This isn't over..." Jubilee hissed, pounding back her drink to slip off the stool and stalk off.

"Fun's just starting." Victor admitted.

If she heard him she showed no sign of it, vanishing past the door with her lingering aroma hanging their like a fragrant flower. Digging out his phone and hitting the speed dial, maybe the day they made a phone just the right size for his thumbs more used to squeezing the eyes right out of someone's sockets he would figure out this newfangled telegraph they called texting.

"Always a pleasure to hear from you Victor."

"Just tell me ya got some work ya need doin'."

"I can always find work for a man with such a unique skill set as yourself Mister Creed, I'll be in touch within the hour."

"Then ya better pick up my tab while yer at it."

"Of course, have a drink on me, or several. Until then."

An hour, just enough time to nurse a buzz if he switched to the hard stuff. Ordering up a bottle and heading off to a booth that was all his with just a bit of menacing, he kicked his feet up and got right on down to business holding the leash until he could finally let it off its chain.

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Having expected the call ever since she had seen him race off, she jolted at the ringtone for Jubilee alone and hoped her friend had him cowed and ready to come home. Looking to the kids she was sitting with in the den, she smiled and excused herself from the movie they were watching. It wouldn't fool them, she wasn't that much older to think so, but at least she could hide whatever she might betray as she hit the answer just before her voicemail picked up.

"Jubes?" Marie asked.

"Roguey?" Jubilee whispered.

"Is...everything okay?" Marie asked warily, taking a deep breath to try and keep herself calm.

The long pause was nerve racking but finally she heard a whimper on the other line that wasn't like her friend, at least not the front she put up most of the time. This was the girl she remembered consoling one night with Kitty after the school had been attacked, the one that was surprisingly tiny when she hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face against her legs.

"I found Logan..." Jubilee whispered.

Feeling an icy hand clutch at her heart Marie feared the worst, having to be brave already hearing the volume of the movie getting turned right on down so the kids could feign still watching it even if they were just eavesdropping.

"Can you come get us Roguey?" Jubilee asked with a hiccup.

"I'll be there as the crow flies." Marie promised, code for taking the Blackbird out.

Awful as it was to hang up, she had to go and get a few of the older kids to watch the rest while she was gone. Same time she'd need a co-pilot to open the bomb bay doors and send on down the ladder for the pickup. Picking out Sam from the bunch as the only Junior she trusted, she was glad he was full of polite Ma'ams and Miss's as she dragged him off to the elevator and hit the lowest of the sub basements that was the hangar.

"Where we goin' Miss Marie?" Sam asked.

"To bring our friends home, and call me Rogue. Suit up."

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	6. Chapter 6

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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Seeing him hadn't done anything for her mood, let alone that he hadn't answered a single question she had thrust at him right along with the promise of an ass kicking. How a man could be so irritating and annoying at the same time having her wanting to just grab his hair in her fists and work out all her frustrations in a kiss that could turn savage she just didn't know. Stalking down the street and finding the first alley, it stunk as if someone had just taken a piss leaving her loath to tread on down its seedy way.

The first block had her just seeing people catching a smoke break from restaurants or throwing trash in the dumpsters, the sushi having her wretch in the corner at the rotting stink in the humid air. Spitting out chucks and hacking as she raced on ahead of the smell, until the aromatic aroma of garbage rotting turned out to be a perfume to what she had just suffered.

"If he's fucking with me I am gonna..." Jubilee started, a groan having her grow quiet wondering if there was some homeless junkie lurking about.

What she saw had the fire from her belly snuffed out instead filled with fear and worry, rushing up to see a man who had been the first to treat her as more than a loud mouthed teen that didn't have the fight to back up her bravado. His hair was matted in blood while his eyes were sightless orbs of sadness staring into the shadows cast by garbage bags and broken down boxes waiting for their prehistoric garbage trucks to trample down the hidden arteries of the monolithic city of New York.

"Logan?" Jubilee asked with a hand to her lips.

Stepping closer to him and trembling that he didn't notice her, he was the Wolverine, the man who heard you have a piss three floors away which had her struggling for a squirt after that fact had been passed around. It had taken her time to get use to the fact that he heard everything, right down to a few private matters that had her blushing red when he'd hinted at just who she was crushing on one week to another. That he just sat there with red rimmed eyes full of defeat and a pain she had only known watching the caskets of her parents be laid six feet low had her crying even if she just wanted to yell at him.

"Logan?" Jubilee asked once again, still after all the years unable to take her eyes off his balled fists knowing just how fast those claws burst free.

She hated herself for it but she couldn't step any closer than the time it'd take to slam him against the first wall to break his fall, she wasn't like Rogue who could just steal the thing that made him damn near indestructible, not that she could pull that trick anymore. The fresh batch of kids that thought The Wolverine a hero hadn't seen him run three claws right through the girl that had given him her heart, it was a mistake she wasn't about to make.

"Wolvie?" Jubilee asked trying the nickname Kitty always used.

It got nothing from him even if he hated it, breathing deep trying to fight the sob that longed to break free with a shaky breath. Pursing her lips until she was chewing on her bottom one, she had to sniffle and close her eyes willing herself to be strong as she sat down with her back to the dumpster.

The three of them had been there the night he had finally found the strength to visit Jean's grave, her real grave that her parents had cried at and every family member of hers had said kind sorrow-filled words at. Kitty had found out from a back hack on his computer, Marie had known just because her heart was aching seeing his haunted eyes, and as for herself she had been the one that already had dibs on a car for a shopping trip that was just an excuse to be alone.

"I killed her..." Logan croaked, slumped against the brick with his silhouette cast in blood and shattered clay.

The tears fell down her cheeks thinking just who he meant, but wondering if he wasn't just out of his mind and thinking he'd killed Rogue that night. There had been a few times over the years that he'd woken up to nightmares and had to walk down the hall to the girls dorm to just make sure it was all a bad dream, ever a light sleeper she'd woken to see him kneeling at Roguey's bedside to ghost a caress to her cheek and brush a few stray hairs from her eyes. All he'd ever said in leaving was to go back to sleep, a bit of trust between them earned then.

"Killed who...?" Jubilee asked dreading the answer, his maddened eyes terrifying her.

"I killed her." Logan whispered again in a tortured voice.

Hearing the awful 'snickt' that no matter how long she lived she thought she could ever get used to, Jubilee watched as he looked to his claws and thought of the blood that likely lay on them. Feeling her stomach twist painfully and long to spill the few drinks she had enjoyed so far, she spit the fresh chunks on the filthy asphalt and dug for her phone.

The phone rang painfully long, her hands trembling and dreading that click that would tell her she had been ignored but just before it came a line had been thrown to pull her from those crushing depths of despair.

"Jubes?" Rogue asked fearfully, her dread easy to pick out.

"Roguey?" Jubilee whispered with a tear falling down her cheek, hot and fast.

"Is..." Rogue asked with an awful pause, "everything okay?"

Shaking her head, Jubilee took some hard breaths remembering that the unseen gesture hadn't carried and let go with a gasp. Staring at Logan the whole while made it all the worse, but she just hoped somehow Rogue would come prepared.

"Can you come get us Roguey?" Jubilee found the strength to ask even as she hiccuped and clenched her eyes tightly shut.

"I'll be there as the crow flies." Rogue promised, a beep from the phone telling of the gps location snooped and logged.

Trying to find the words to tell just how thankful and relieved she was, the phone cut off with just the duration flashing with a red receiver. It saved her that awful goodbye but left her alone with him in the alley, left alone with the words a stranger had said to her in answer to her question.

"Who the fuck are you to him?" Jubilee asked anew, this time to Logan longing to know who Victor was.

The only answer she'd been given so far had her heart ache, 'You wouldn't believe me if I fucking told ya babe.'

"Don't you fucking patronize me you limp dicked sack of shit..." Jubilee growled, directing her anger to the man who laid at the core of suffering she was sharing with the few people she trusted in the whole world.

Curling in on herself until she had her knees pressed to her chest with her face buried against them, she struggled to breath against the pressure building in her chest and the fire that burned in her clenched fists. She didn't have any reasons to be afraid anymore, she wasn't a scared girl who had yet to bury her parents, she wasn't the one that had to be brave for the rest of the kids telling them the same lie over and over just so she'd believe it herself. She was an X-man, and she wouldn't let anyone hurt her again.

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	7. Chapter 7

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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"You're him?"

It wasn't so much a question as to who he was, but the affirmation for the man that he was right. Most people that had the pleasure of knowing his name fell into three categories, clients, a small group of people who provided the kinds of services he needed, and everybody else that had met an untimely demise. The man before him fell into the second category at the behest of the first, an arms dealer acting as a courier in this instance.

"Whaddya got for me?" Victor asked.

Wearing gloves and hitting the keyless entry for the trunk, it popped open to show a few of his favourites. Four high caliber pistols, a pump action shotgun that gave the right emphasis with every chambered slug, and the one thing his client had asked be the piece du resistance. A bottle of Cristal, and not the low end either.

"I mean no disrespect sir, but you know what you're to do?" The courier asked with a shaky voice.

"Oh you got no idea kid, sometimes the classics are the best." Victor purred, ages since he'd been asked to send a message like this.

"I just, forgive me. I just had to be sure, the client was very...specific." The courier prattled on trying to explain himself.

Slamming the trunk and taking the keys, Victor left him behind in the parking lot to the sudden stench of piss that carried on the evening breeze. Having a look at the man in the rearview, he had to wonder just who his usual clientele were, the stink of gun oil and machinery marking him more as a craftsman than anyone used to dealing with the hatchet men sent out to work with his wares. With a truck full of them to test out, if he liked them enough he might just bother to remember his face after tonight.

Never one for guns unless they came mounted on the side of a chopper or a humvee, he'd make an exception tonight since it was what he was getting paid for to keep his beast from getting the better of him again as it had for so long ever since the big W W 2. Prowling through the streets in the black Caddy, he was far from his usual hunting grounds by the time he pulled up to the club staring at the lineup.

He could smell the party drugs on them as if it was the 70s and 80s all over again. Picking out the ones that had been pre-drinking was easy, the girls welcomed in while the men had to work to get past that velvet rope to the playground of this new breed of Gangster.

"Wait till ya get a load of me." Victor growled, grinning the whole while as he walked back and popped the trunk and strip out of his jacket.

Popping the bottle of Cristal in its supplied satchel, the first one that made any crack about him carrying a purse was going to be spitting their teeth like chiclets to the sidewalk. Strapping the holsters on sheathing the pistols, he pulled his jacket on and grabbed the shottie for a leisurely stroll up to the door with it slung over his shoulder. Never one to bask in the limelight, he smiled to all the punk kids pulling out their phones to record his procession on up to the club.

The bouncers took the better path to valour, radioing for help and turning tail showing their hulking muscles were just for show or kicking the crap outta some partygoer too drunk or drugged out to defend himself. There was a time he'd already be spitting blood and feeling the hot sting of bullets riddling his chest, that he guessed would be fashionably late as he strode into the noise, sweat and smell of so many bodies grinding against another on the dance floor.

The first of this posse to see him was still reaching for his pistol slung in his waistband, lowering the shottie and breathing in the fear that he'd never draw in time. Gripping the stock tight and squeezing the trigger, the screams joined the echo of the belched hellfire that sent one gangbanger to his grave. Pumping to chamber another round as the first shell danced through the air, he could see now just how many of them there were as they stood against the tide of humanity rushing for cover or just fleeing for their lives.

"One for the money." Victor sang as he sent another to his grave, "Two for the show."

Shifting the satchel behind him and wading in with another shot fired, he saw some trying to overturn the tables like in the movies to find them just bolted to the floor or just toppling over. The bullets that bit his flesh were nothing more than gnats, slinging the shotgun and reaching for the first of his pistols to show them how it was done. The recoil alone would likely break their wrists, but in his hands he picked his targets and sent them off one at a time.

"Three to get ready..." Victor carried on, casting off the spent pistol to take up another all the while keeping an eye on the prize.

The fifties had been a good time to be alive, watching Rock and Roll get born, the sixties something else between all the hippies and a people rising up to say enough was enough. A word he used to use to get a rise outta Wraith was something thrown around by these kids like it was nothing. Not for the first time he wished he hadn't ripped that man's heart right outta his chest, but he consoled himself with the fact that it was what people got for sticking their noses into family business. Seeing his mark trying to make a bolt for it, he ended that with the mess that became his knee with a scream that sent shivers down his back.

The club was empty other than the dead and dying, the people huddling in corners crying with eyes closed praying to see another day. Looking down to the sobbing man at his feet, Victor pulled out the bottle of Cristal and set it before him.

"Do you know why I'm here?" Victor asked as he crouched to stare into the panicked eyes.

Reaching down to grab the mess of shattered bone, cartilage and rent flesh he gave it a squeeze just enough to hear a pitiful scream of wounded prey not worthy of all the effort he was putting into this. He missed the real gangsters, the ones that would curse you full of spittle and blood on the lips before he snuffed the light from their eyes.

"Focus, don't make me ask you this again. Do you know why I'm here?" Victor asked in a surprisingly level tone.

"No, I don't know why the fuck you're here!" The man wailed.

"Roughly about nine months ago you fucked my employers daughter, drunk off her ass on this shit. Good news is you're a daddy. Bad news, neither live through the birth." Victor announced, holstering his gun to take the bottle and pop the cork.

Offering it to the man at his feet, he drank like a man that had never known water in his life and drained it down with the expensive champagne running down his chin. Waiting until it was over, just like he was being paid to be patient, he took the bottle by its neck and with his ever impressive strength shattered it over his prey's skull. Mercy wasn't his thing, but it was what the client had asked for. Ending the man with one last round fired, he showed himself out through the back entrance.

His ride was waiting for him right where he was supposed to be, all kinds of fun left in that car back at the club to screw up the investigation. The videos that were likely already getting thrown up on the internet would be interesting enough, thinking he'd have to talk to that geek in his pocket tomorrow. For now all he needed was a long hot shower and the sort of fun that got the recently deceased into all the trouble in the first place. Noticing the box of cigars and the bottle of Bourbon on ice, he was half way through lighting one up when a thought came to him inspired by everything that had just happened.

"Shit, wonder if she's on the pill..." Victor mused, his memory of the past night hazy for different reasons but clear enough he hadn't cared enough back then to bother with a jimmy hat.

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	8. Chapter 8

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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Where two left, three came back, Sam Guthrie earning himself bragging rights or a quick death depending on what shape Logan's bike came back in. Deciding the truck would just have to get ticketed and towed, Marie sat in the cockpit of the Blackbird taking a moment to gather her thoughts. While the flight hadn't been long, it had felt a lifetime as she finally unbuckled her belt and started off to the bomb bay doors where Sam had picked them up.

She'd flown missions with the X-men aplenty since taking on her role in a support capacity, right down to a small arsenal ranging from tasers to rubber bullets to lethal ordinance if it ever came to that. In that time she had seen a friendship grow between Logan and Jubilee, one that stung at first thinking it rivaled her own. Logan saw Jubilee as one of the guys, right down to taking her out to bars and going for rides on his bike. She swore, drank, and had her moral compass set by the gruff Canadian himself. Yet as she cleared the hatch, everything that was going on was shown in its awful severity by the fact that Logan was curled in on himself to one side of the bay, while Jubilee was hugging her knees staring at a patch of steel plated decking to avoid having to see him.

"Oh my gawd, Logan!" Marie gasped, her first faltering steps cut short by a sparkling explosion where the next would have fallen.

"Don't, just...don't. He's...broken." Jubilee managed, struggling to find the words and her breath.

The one thing the cure had stolen from her had been her lack of fear when it came to Logan, ever accepting of any pain back then knowing all she had to do was steal just enough of him to pay it back in kind. She hated that she had to fear the claws like anyone else, swearing she never would have, but the price had been high and she had still paid it being cast from Olympus, so very mortal among men and women who walked like gods.

"What happened?" Marie asked, the question she had longed yet dreaded to ask ever since both had rushed off out of the school leaving her alone.

"Victor Fucking Creed happened! Mister you wouldn't believe me if I told you! But he still tells me which fucking alley to head down past every shit smelling dumpster to find Logan there bawling about killing Jeannie, just over, and over, and fucking over again! I wanted to fucking paff him just to shut him the hell up..." Jubilee screamed, her voice cracking and breaking into a whimper as she curled in on herself.

"Jean?" Maire hissed, the name still holding a strange power over her.

Turning to look at Logan, he just laid there on the deck with his eyes clenched tightly shut, his fists balled and so very dangerous. Jealousy was a strange thing, as a girl she never thought anything of Logan's flirtatious advances to the lady doctor. She was only sixteen, hardly anything more than a child and so very cursed but still blessed to have Bobby. Now a woman in her own right, experienced and worldly, the thought of the man she had taken into her bed so torn over another...hurt. But she was used to being hurt, and knew how to bull past it.

"Jean's dead, and he chose my bed." Marie sniffed, walking to where a fire extinguisher was to take it up and point it down to her beau.

She had trust in them both, that playing the classic bitch wasn't going to have her down trying to stitch herself together in the med bay a level up. Pulling the pin and pressing the trigger, the first frosty blast of sub-zero CO2 struck Logan and had him on his feet snarling like the beast she knew he could be. She held her ground staring into his eyes as a sound like dynamite set her ears ringing and slammed him through the open hatch.

"Are you fucking crazy, shit! You deserve each other, I'm fucking outta here the moment I'm sure he ain't gonna gut you!" Jubilee snarled, her fists glowing in that way Marie knew to be the most dangerous.

The people that joked about Jubilee being a firecracker hadn't seen just what they could do if handled wrong, they hadn't been sent out to the drunken idiots that had held roman candles in their hands or played with things closer to blasting caps than toys. She had, and she knew all the control it took her friend to keep that all wrapped up tightly in what were usually nothing more than bright lights full of snaps and bangs that would just leave you deaf and blind for a spell.

"Sonovabitch..." Logan snarled stalking out gripping the hatch in hand to glare at her.

"You called?" Marie asked with an arched eyebrow.

Watching him all the while still holding the fire extinguisher, she saw his eyes grow focussed in that way when he was working off gut instinct and all those heightened senses alone. He might as well be a telepath for what he could ferret out of you, no amount of bracing yourself ever covering for millions of years of evolution pumping pheromones and musk to the trace scents into the air, by the way your hair stood on end to your posture or just how dilated your eyes were.

"I need a beer." Logan replied, turning without a word to stalk down the loading ramp.

"You...you need a beer, you fucking...I...you know what, you can just go screw yourself!" Jubilee sputtered in unbridled indignant rage.

Marie caught her before she could race after him, levelling the business end of the fire extinguisher against her in open threat. The glow around her fists faded, but they still remained ball and still dangerous. Waiting until the thrum of the elevator rising up to the school proper, Marie felt her strength falter as her legs buckled, just unable to put on the strong front she had this whole time.

"Shit, shit shit...I'm sorry Roguey..." Jubilee whispered as she caught her.

"Ah hell, we're all past sayin' sorry for actin' like a bunch o' idjits. Soon as Ro gets back I'm takin' my gawd damned vacation time." Marie breathed out in a tired voice.

"You knew I'd paff him, didn't ya?" Jubilee asked, settling down with her and hugging her hard.

"That or ya'd be getting a crash course on inflatin' a punctured lung." Marie croaked, the morbid humour the only thing keeping her from crying.

Seeing Logan there whimpering in the corner like a wounded dog had her heart nearly break in half, but to think that Jean still held that much power over him was a hard pill to swallow. But swallow it she had, because she didn't know just how she would have taken it if Bobby hadn't survived the place that had cost them so much, the Island.

She blamed that place on why they hadn't worked out after everything she had done to live her dream of just being able to touch again, to wear a bikini and go out to the pool without a care. To not fear and dread locker rooms, or a trip to the mall, or a surprise bit of affection in a sudden kiss. She had given up so much to gain just the ability to touch again.

"You knew he'd come to his senses?" Jubilee pushed further in her line of questioning.

"No, but I hoped. I also hoped if I was wrong ya would have covered the check my mouth wrote, and plenty glad we didn't have to go to the bank for that one. You okay?" Marie asked, revealing her own bravado for what it was, her own gut telling her just how to handle it all.

"I feel like tearin' out on Logan's hog the moment Sammy boy gets it back here, cause there's a man who's got some questions to answer that I ain't takin' no for an answer from'." Jubilee growled, yet the way she hugged herself telling a different story.

"I think yer just goin' lookin' for a fight so ya don't gotta go feelin' used..." Marie whispered.

Jubilee had the words to a snarky remark on her lips only to die as she looked at her friend, if anyone knew what it was to feel used it was her. Used as a proxy power supply in a madman's machination to force mutation on an unsuspecting populous without concern to whether she lived or died.

"So what if the guy was looking for Logan and we fucked each other stupid, so what if they got some kinda bad blood between them? I got what I was looking for last night, something to keep me off of thinkin' that you two dumbasses might be fucking up a good friendship with some fucking but ya know what? Like I said, you two fucking deserve another. Now to quote Logan, I need a fucking beer so if you'll excuse me..." Jubilee growled, stalking off in the fashion of the man she held as her mentor though hell would have to freeze over before she admitted it.

"I think we all need a fucking beer, he better have saved us some." Marie honestly laughed, a distraction just what she needed for the heart to heart she knew was to come.

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Sitting on a tire with his back against the brake job he'd been doing the day before until his world had so suddenly changed, he heard the elevator open and waited for their first wafting scent to roll into the garage that was his usual haunt. Working on a six pack as a starter, two crushed cans beside him already, he was on his third as they walked in and ignored him making their way to the fridge. Sure enough Lee took a Miller, while his Rogue grabbed a can of corona.

He watched them part, Jubilee stalking over to where his biker jacket hung to wrap herself up in it. She looked cold and he couldn't blame her, she'd seen him at his worst and was still getting used to having to do what had to be done. That had been something Marie had learned early on, his claws driven through her chest and the choice of live and death in pressing her bare hand to his face. Downing his beer and taking a breath to say the words that felt paltry to express how he felt, he was saved the insult and embarrassment.

"Don't even fucking try asshole..." Jubilee growled, following suit to finish her beer and beckon for one of his cans.

Pulling it free of the ring of plastic, he tossed it to her to hear a crack and hiss that sounded like another to him. Raising his in silent toast, they drank in silence, Jubilee staring at her feet with her idle hand burying itself in his jacket pocket, while he looked off to Marie to see so much written upon her face. Hurt, anger, understanding and a side helping of 'tired of his bullshit' were all plain to see.

"I know him..." Logan whispered.

"Great, who the fuck is he?" Jubilee asked, cutting him off.

"In my gut, I know I know him and he sure as hell knows me even if he kept callin' me Jimmy. Even if it felt right, right down to him callin' me his baby brother..." Logan continued, having a sip of his beer to wet his dry lips.

"Oh fuck me sideways, don't you dare fucking tell me that! Oh shit, there's no fucking way..." Jubilee shrieked.

"You think he's telling the truth?" Marie asked, ignoring her friends warranted outburst.

Logan clenched his jaw and though back to that hazy meeting, his heart hammering and blood running hot for revenge. It was all a twisted dream until he awoke from it in the back of the Blackbird, a dream of blood in the air and the woman he loved dead by his own hand. He knew in his gut parts of it were no dream, the name he roared in challenge in a bar that had two faces, right down to the beating he earned.

Popping his claws with a 'snickt', he stared at them just to make sure the impossible hadn't happened, remembering all too well a time he had clutched them broken to his chest feeling the pain so vivid and real now.

"He might have been shittin' me on some stuff, but he wasn't lyin' about us bein' brothers. He was way too mad about it when I didn't feel it in my gut..." Logan admitted, sheathing his claws to their obvious comfort.

"Great, I just fucked Logan's long lost brother. Awesome, Freud would have a field day with me." Jubilee spat with any heat, clenching her fist on something in the pocket to throw it angrily across the room.

Staring down to it thinking he'd have to tidy it up later, Logan noticed it for what it was and got to his feet to pick it on up. Turning it over in his hand twice just to be sure, he looked right back to her sullenly sipping on her beer ignoring the look thrown her way.

"Logan?" Marie asked, reading his worry written so familiar for her.

"This yours?" Logan pressed, throwing the small crumbled box back in a twisted game of catch.

Snatching it out of the air and glaring down at it, whatever irritation she had for his games evaporated right along with any colour in her face. Tearing open the package and counting three times, she clenched it tight and couldn't fight the sudden worried tears falling down her cheeks.

"Holy shit Lee, don't you dare tell me..." Marie breathed, reading into it all to clear.

"Oh my god..." Jubilee whispered, her voice shaky.

"Don't you fucking say it!" Marie snapped, crying herself in sympathy.

"Oh my god I was so drunk and tweaked out after the fight, oh my god, oh my god..." Jubilee sputtered, fighting for breath.

Closing the distance between him and his 'partner' on the battlefield, Logan crouched down and pulled her into a hug that was met with frantic clawing hands and sputtering sobs. Whatever shock Marie had worn moments before vanished, rushing over and joining in the embrace whispering apology and promising to help however she could.

"Oh fuck, I just got laid by Mister Virile's big brother without even using a rubber, I am so proper fucked..." Jubilee sobbed.

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	9. Chapter 9

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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Following her friend off for a walk of the property the moment Sam came back, the bike looked everything it should be but even still Logan was going over it with a careful eye as the farm boy sweated bullets. It was just the distraction she needed, just enough time to get all her own thoughts together after everything that had happened in the span of just a day. Last night after enough hints and innuendo they had finally done it, they had stepped past the odd stolen kiss here and some very frisky hands that were right part with some heavy petting to just let go of all their inhibitions and throw down.

"You okay?" Marie asked, silence this long from Jubilee a sign something was very wrong indeed.

"Yep, totally okay, just skippy. Probably preggers, but hey, I'm fine." Jubilee spat, snatching a branch to snap over her knee as she stalked on to the tree line.

"Just because you had sex doesn't mean ya got pregge...pregnant." Marie huffed, catching herself a step into using some of her friends slang.

"Uh huh, he said it himself. Vic's his big brother, I mean fuck, men like that don't shoot blanks, and don't you try telling me you didn't use protection too little miss goody two shoes." Jubilee groaned, throwing up the broken halves of the branch to paff.

"Been on the pill, still used a foam." Marie confessed, having thought out her night with Logan for so long.

"See! So don't you dare try telling me I shouldn't be shitting bricks, fuck. How long until I can take a test?" Jubilee asked, spinning around on her friend.

"I think it's a couple of weeks until ya can trust them." Marie offered, the whimper enough to have her reach out for a much needed hug between them.

"There are...options..." Marie added in the embrace.

"What? The morning after pill like some easy prom queen?" Jubilee laughed, just a nod her answer.

"Roguey?" Jubilee asked after struggling for breath.

"Yeah Jubes?" Marie asked.

"I swore something to myself a long time ago, course figuring it'd be under some different circumstances than this, but that if I ever...were, you know...pregnant..." Jubilee stumbled for words, fresh tears coming again.

"You'd keep it?" Marie offered, getting a shaky nod right along with some pursed lips.

"I mean fuck, they're more than enough folks just tryin' ta kill us, register us, and do god knows what else. This just me giving them the biggest 'Fuck you' I can, I don't care how it happened, if it's for sure, then I'm in for the long haul and gonna raise 'em right." Jubilee rambled, finding some strength to stand tall with her promise to herself.

"This doesn't have ta do with the fact that if you're...pregnant, then accordin' ta Logan it's his niece or nephew." Marie warily asked.

"Oh my god that is just so fuckin' weird to hear, but yeah, there's that too. I mean fuck, if it's real, then it means Logan finally has some family. Up until you two get bumpin' ugly enough ta fuck up and pop out a mini-Mare or little Loggie." Jubilee gasped, laughing as she turned the idea back on the lady who asked it.

"I just gave it up last night Jubes, I don't need ta think about that yet!" Marie snapped.

"Whoa, back up. You mean you, and Bobby, you didn't?" Jubilee asked.

"We...fooled around, some oral both ways, but...and then we broke up and I went ta college and now I fly the damn jet and gotta patch ya idjits up!" Marie growled.

"So Logan really was your first, wow..." Jubilee breathed, flopping down on the lawn with her eyes looking sightless.

"Shit, you okay Lee?" Marie asked, her fingers finding a pulse out of habit.

"Yeah, just, wow that's kinda romantic. Makes my first sound so fucking pathetic..." Jubilee whispered.

Hugging her and whispering promises that it was anything but, Marie remembered that game of drunken truth or dare that had them in detention for a month. Doug Ramsey, in the Hole, when they thought they were all gonna die. Last they had heard from Doug he was at Oxford, a natural linguist on the fast track to taking after the only other Professor they knew.

"Guess ya just cashed in your rebound in spades." Marie laughed, the little fling Jubilee and Doug had tried to nurture doomed to fail from the start.

"Oh my god, he's gonna laugh his ass off when I call him. He always said I was lyin' about not likin' Logan! The dude's my bud. Trust him with my life, back to back in a fight, screwin' that up with some screwin' would be major groady. Not to mention everyone knew we all had a number behind you, duh. Doug's gonna ride this for years!" Jubilee whimpered, though smiling all the while at just how insane it all was.

"C'mon, lets git ya ta bed, ya might be the mommy of a future niece or nephew, we can talk about this tomorrow." Marie said with a chuckle, helping her friend on back to her feet for the walk to the school.

"Two weeks?" Jubilee asked, throwing an arm over her friend's shoulder.

"Ah hell, don't go worryin' till ya miss yer period." Marie laughed.

"Fuck me, I hate waiting." Jubilee hissed.

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Leaning out on the balcony overlooking the city, the hotel had been a favourite of his to indulge those rare times he longed to get out of the grime and filth of the gutters that so much of his work had him down in. A shift of bedsprings told him that she was awake, having tired her out long ago and leaving her to catch a nap right along with her breath. Drawing hard on his cigarette as the ember ate away at it, he flicked it into the night and waited listening to her light tread over the wood floors of the suite.

"You okay baby?"

"Dandy."

She pressed herself against him and looked past at the view, caring just about as much as he did if anyone saw them stark naked in the warm evening. He found her down in the lobby plying her trade with the careful and cunning eye of the vixen she was, something about knowing she was out on the hunt appealing to his tastes. But for the predator on the prowl he had seen the floors below, she was nothing more than cowed prey in the sheets submitting to his will as he ravaged her. It was like the club all over again, feeding his beast to find there was no sport in it, it left him unsatisfied and hungering still.

"Money's on the bureau." Victor heard her heart skip a beat, feeling the flush run through her flesh pressed against his back.

"You paid for the whole night..."

"Miller time babe, fuck off."

Closing his eyes and listening to her, the shower was quick with angry banging of the cabinets and muttered insults that slid off his back easily. Stalking out to dress, she counted twice before stuffing it in her purse and snatching up the last of her things. Sparing her a glance at hearing a pause at the door, she stood there letting a low breath out and squared her shoulders finding all her poise and grace to exit his suite just as he had found her, a temptress on the clock.

Alone at last, he made way to the liquor cabinet stocked with the best and not caring just what the bill would be, blood money was best served three fingers in an old fashioned neat, the bottle on hand for a handy refill. Slumping into a chair and savouring his first sip, unbidden came the memory of nails digging into his flesh tearing bloody rents down his back as he thrust hard and fast feeling her hot breath brush against his lips.

Having a long sip, he remembered the stab of pain as she found a way around the nearly two feet he had on her, the kiss savage and long ending with her lust-ridden eyes staring into him in all the need he knew too much about.

"And she teaches fuckin' gymnastics..." Victor growled, the possibilities swirling in his mind as his flesh roused full of longing.

Finishing his drink and pouring a fresh one, his idle clenched fist felt the bite of his claws digging deep as he fought for control. Usually staring into the eyes of a man as the life faded right with his heart beating its last pathetic patter was enough to find some slack on the leash. A follow up fuck just the thing to finish off the night, yet here he was burning through the nights pay fast feeling none of the sated satisfaction from a job well done. He knew just whose fault that was, and like he had said in the alley, it wasn't over by a long shot. Finding his glass empty he poured another.

He knew exactly what he had been looking for and it wasn't slack on the leash, he'd been looking for the fight denied him meeting his brother again and to relieve the re-invention of sex meeting someone that fought him for dominance the whole way down. All he found was disappointment and a quick payday, his broker taking a well earned cut for services rendered. Unclenching his fist and staring at his bloodied claws, the thought of his fingers tightly holding her hair as she bit his shoulder hard enough to draw blood was enough to relax and watch them vanish.

"This isn't over..." Victor whispered, recalling the echo of his own words as she stalked off.

His drink forgotten, he was on his feet and heading back to the bureau for his phone, a few awkward swipes and taps enough to make him long for a rotary dial he could get a claw into for making a call. Waiting as the phone rang, he wandered back to finish off his last swallow.

"Mister Creed?"

Shiro was a good kid, always respectful and cowed and properly cautious, the thought of what him and Bradley could have done together was one of his regrets he just had to live with. Just letting him sweat long enough, he poured the last of the bottle and walked back to the balcony enjoying the breeze between his legs.

"You got her number?" Victor finally asked.

Another thing he liked about Shiro was that he didn't waste time asking questions, he was probably wracking his mind remembering their last meeting to venture the right guess. He gave the kid time, time was one thing he had an abundance of when he was in the mood for it, and right now everything he was in the mood for would take just the right kind of cunning to pull off.

"I take it you mean Miss Lee or perhaps Miss D'Ancanto?" Shiro asked in his usual wary voice.

"Little miss Lee, but if'in ya got her friend's too I'll take it." Victor chuckled, the thought of calling Jimmy's little piece of tail full of possibility.

"No more than twenty minutes Mister Creed, and I shall call you with both." Shiro replied., dial tone droning on as the call was ended.

Figuring he probably had them on hand already but needed twenty minutes for a bit of that stuff the hippies loved so much, it still gave him time to catch a shower and maybe run through a few ideas of just what he wanted to do to his little gymnast once he got some one on one time with her.

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Author's Note : Well, I never expected the story to go this way but I hope you're all enjoying it as much as I'm having fun writing it for ya :D


	10. Chapter 10

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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Some classical she had grown to love was playing as the school shook with the return of the X-men, the basketball court folding back for the supersonic jet to make it's vertical landing down into the subterranean hangar. Idly she wondered just how many balls had been lost down it's maw over the years, having another sip of her tea and realizing she had been reading the same page three times now before throwing it at her bed.

The knock at her door came that she had been dreading, having spent the afternoon avoiding him and helping with the kids. Staring out her bay window, the frantic explanation of her friend had been running through her head mingled with visions of Logan looking truly as beaten as he had on coming back from Alcatraz. She couldn't hate the woman, the woman who had everything and martyred herself to save them all. But she could hate the Phoenix that rose from death, the one that took so much right down to a piece of Logan's heart with her.

Hearing the knocking again and the urgency in it, she threw her legs out from under her curled repose and stalked off to throw it open and glare at the man standing there through her watery, angry eyes.

"Marie..." Logan began.

"No, not tonight! Go..." Marie snapped, slamming the door to find it blocked with a foot.

Slamming it again twice before throwing it open in a fit, she turned her back to him and walked to her window to stare out at the night feeling all her hard earned calm shattered. The music played on and through it she heard him close the door that he lingered at. She saw him there in the window looking unsure, so rare to see the Wolverine looking anything other than cocksure and full of indomitable assurance. It was one of the things that had first kindled the childish crush that she had kept in check when he had been off in search of himself, postcards coming in that she dotted on her wall and strung together with string once more dreaming of distant lands to travel.

"I'm sorry fer runnin' off..." Logan said, taking the first few steps towards her.

She waited until she knew he was at her back, spinning about and slapping him hard, glaring into his eyes and seeing defeat in them again. The hurt she suffered was there too, a hint of nose flaring anger rising as he clenched his jaw and held his ground. However much she hated to spill tears for him to see, she was crying her pain as she worked through her anger.

"You think this is about that, about running off?" Marie hissed, stabbing a finger into his chest that balled into a fist as she drew back.

Throwing her punch that was easily caught, he held her wrist firm yet gentle and did the same as she threw another wild attack with her free arm. Struggling to get free, he held her for a moment and then let go, all the while staring at her looking for understanding she didn't want to give him, reason for her rage. Twisting off and wrapping her arms about herself, she leaned against the wall and looked to the floor unable to even see the reflections that littered her room, a mirror here, a window there, the gloss of a photo hung upon the wall.

"Then what's it about?" Logan asked, the spark of a match coming moments before the first aromatic scent of a cigar wafted in the room.

Meeting his eyes in her window, she saw now he was playing dumb, the same pain in them she had seen years ago on the second funeral they had held for the late Jean Grey.

"If only she had stayed dead..." Marie whispered as she held his gaze.

That had him looking with downcast eyes away from her, away from all the hurt that had come after thinking those ghosts were finally laid to rest. She had proved herself a woman in her own right, time away from the school having her own reunions with him reigniting that childish crush she had nursed for so long. The distance between them wasn't so different, the touches lingering longer and without any hint of wholesome friendship between them. It had all cumulated in a nights passion that had her claiming him for herself, and then in one moment she was made to feel sixteen again.

"She was never yours..." Marie renewed.

"I know." Logan whispered, his left to burn forgotten between his fingers as the smoke drifted unto the ceiling.

"Then why?!" Marie snarled as she turned to face him.

No answer came and it only fuelled all her mood, stalking up to him to force him to stare into her eyes. It was worse than the Blackbird now, he wasn't broken and out of his mind, he was the same man whose heart beat to the same large strokes that he lived his life with.

"You're never going to be able to love me with all your heart, not as long as she still has that piece..." Marie said in barely more than a breath.

Her crush had burned hotter than ever and now she was set upon the path that would have her give herself wholly to him if only he'd have her. She was free to love him with every ounce of her being, give herself unto him heart and soul. Looking at him now she wondered if this was truly who he was, the man always looking into the past because he had lost his, the man who could never let go.

His answer came as he turned his back to her and stood at the door with a hand clasped on the knob, clenching so hard veins stood as he struggled not to crush it. Tearing it open and slamming it behind him, she stood there feeling her heart ache as she struggled to breath.

"Because you still love her..." Marie whispered knowing he likely could still hear her.

Finally the storming of his angry strides sounded as he left her door, every one a fresh ache as her heart struggled on. Walking off to flick the lights off and making her way back to her bay window, she sat down to shed those tears and find the strength to wait, wait for him to make his choice. The choice to finally bury Jean and stop living in the past, their future together depending on it so she could freely give herself to him.

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One phone call lead to another and a few more before he knew it, lounging now in the one feature of the suite he had asked for explicitly, a large cast iron soaker large enough for his frame. Room service had come by with the beer and a steak, enjoying both in the bath to some good ol' Rock and Roll that reminded him of napalm in the mornings. Throwing the bone in the trash and prying off the cap of his latest beer with a claw, he slugged it back waiting in anticipation. Eyeballing his phone making a dash along the floor, he reached for it and hit the speaker.

"Your guest has arrived sir, we're showing her up."

"Good." Victor replied, hanging up and tossing it to the counter.

Pounding back his beer and climbing out of the soaker tub, Victor started to towel off with a look to himself in the mirror. Throwing the towel over his neck and drawing a sink of pipping hot water, he got a lather going for a shave just before getting his razor ready with a fresh blade. Now a classic, the idea of anything other than a straight razor had been a novelty when he had first bought it, a constant companion through two world wars to the cold war and beyond.

Clean shaven and running a bit of gel through his hair, he splashed on some aftershave and met himself grinning in the mirror. Hearing the door open along with some the angry stomping of feet, they quieted as the door shut. In those calls he had made there had been a few to certain shops down on Fifth Avenue, giving himself one last look before he snagged two beers from the ice chest and announced himself.

She stood staring at the dress laid out on the bed, the same cut as the classic little black dress but in a dark red that set his blood running hot. Leaning against the frame shower fresh so to speak, dangling a beer in offer as he kept one in reserve, he held her eyes and saw how they widened as she took in his physique. Their first meeting had been desperate and hungry, now he wanted to show her he wasn't just the sort of man that spent his days finding fights in bars and dressing up as a biker.

"Like what ya see?" Victor asked, tossing her a beer.

Catching it and having a look to the cap, he watched her pull out a key ring with a bottle opener dangling from it, cracking hers open for a long swig that put her delicate neck on display. Staring at it hungrily and longing to run his teeth over it, to mark it as his own, he joined her after popping his with the claw of his thumb to down nearly the whole bottle.

"You said you'd tell me everything." Jubilee said with a gasped breath.

"Oh, I plan ta, just where we're goin' they got a dress code and I don't think you'd fit in." Victor said with a lecherous grin.

Dressed for the road, if there was one thing he loved in life it was tailing a lady on a bike sporting a tight pair of jeans or riding leathers. The jacket was her own this time, thrown open to show a band shirt that hinted at her so in a hurry to meet him she forgot her bra. Meeting her own interest with his own, the glance she threw south of the belt had a blush dot her cheeks that had him fighting just not to take her then hoping she'd fight him the whole time tearing at his flesh and biting him.

"You're fucking kidding right?" Jubilee asked, looking down to the dress on the bed and throwing a glance to the dry cleaning that hung at the back of the door.

Turning his back to her and fetching his suit, he walked off to the dresser for everything else he'd need. The flash of teeth as she bit her bottom lip stuck in a moments indecision had him purring low in his chest, pulling on a pair of boxers before his slacks. Finally she proved herself anything but a dainty flower, stripping for him as he watched from the mirror of his vanity, throwing clothing to the floor and revealing herself right down to every bruise and welt form the night past.

Struggling for the faltering control, he fed his beast promises the night to come to gain some of the slack that had been stolen from his hand. Neglige first, it was a strip tease in reverse watching her slip on the silky undergarments as he buttoned up his own shirt. As many years alive and in the company of so many women, he had an eye for them like no other and it fit perfectly. With eyes only for the dress as it was drawn on, he finished tying his tie and walked up to her in silent offer of a hand with the zipper.

Looking down at her and her wind tussled hair, she was a sight to behold and he longed for the time when he could relive the moment past in reverse and the promise of everything else it held. To her credit, she made a show of adjusting his tie only to draw him down to her level until their eyes were dangerously close. Not quite a beast, he saw in her eyes something that she had to fight with herself.

"You better not be fucking with me..." Jubilee hissed, her hands tightly holding his tie.

"Or what?" Victor asked.

The flash of whatever she fought to hold in thrall flared in her eyes, the tang the moment before a lightning strike filling the air as every beat of his heart flushed him with unbridled want and longing. Crushing his lips against hers and savouring the pain as her teeth pierced his flesh, the blood mingled in the embrace. Hands at his throat were met with his own in her hair, snatching up the leash in time to break away before he threw her on the bed and claimed her. Her tongue finding a spot of his blood on her lips was torture, his view of her walking to the door holding a pair of stilettos in hand a delight as her hips swayed to and fro.

"Or I won't come back here tonight, and you can go fuck yourself." Jubilee said without a look back.

Snatching up his jacket and running a hand through his hair, Victor followed after her, taking her against him and grinning at every jealous look thrown their way. The Big Dog was coming through, and the pups were welcome to try after his mate, he'd send them all running off with their tail between their legs.

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End file.
